It was almost 20 years ago on a brisk autumn evening that I was walking up the stairs in Rockefeller Center and the toe of my black pump caught the hem of my trench coat. I tripped and hit the stairs hard, still clutching my briefcase as my hands broke my fall. I quickly scrambled to get myself upright, nodded to other commuters who briefly stopped to ask if I was okay, and made my way to Port Authority.

I kept replaying the scene on the bus ride home to New Jersey, unable to shake the fact that my reflexes and balance were not what they once were. Just five years from my 20s, I was feeling like a middle-aged woman. I was a year into a new corporate job that I didn’t like, eating the wrong foods, not moving my body, stressed and giving little attention to sleep. That stumble up the stairs was my wake-up call.

One day I noticed a colleague in the coffee room shaking a plastic tumbler and asked him what he was doing. He said he was following a new workout and eating routine that included protein shakes. He told me the name of the book he reading and at lunchtime I went to Barnes & Noble to buy Body for Lifeby Bill Phillips. It was full of before and after pictures – and while intrigued, I could not imagine taking a picture of myself at that point in time in a bathing suit.

I started in earnest. The workout program consisted of cardio and weightlifting. I bought a treadmill and put it right next to my bed and borrowed a weight bench and some weights and put those next to the treadmill. I made working out unavoidable. To ensure I was able to follow the nutrition part of the program, I emptied my cupboards and filled them with only the foods listed in the book.

Each week, there were simple weightlifting routines rotating between upper and lower workouts. Interspersed were the cardio days consisting of 20 minute laddered intervals. Unable to run for that length of time, my intervals consisted of walking for one minute at 3mph, then 3.3, 3.5, 3.7 culminating with a one-minute jog at 4.0 before catching my breath for the next set by walking again at 3mph.

I was worlds away from the track and cross-country running I did in high school and came face-to-face with the fact that I was overweight and out of shape in my mid-30s.

But my consistency brought progress. I did the best I could each day. About six weeks into the program, a colleague asked what I was doing, commenting that I looked great. I was feeling better as well, which I guess was evident.

That program changed my body and my life – setting me on a path from a sedentary life to an active one.

Journal Reflections: How do you feel about your current exercise routine? Are you doing something that makes you feel good each day? If not, how might you take a small step towards a new goal, perhaps by parking farther from the office to get a walk in or taking the stairs?

Start Where You Are